Four members of the University of Colorado Boulder School of Education faculty were recognized in the 鈥淓du-Scholar Public Influence Rankings鈥� released today as being among the nation鈥檚 top 200 researchers whose scholarship bridges academic and public audiences.
The list was initiated by Frederick M. Hess of the American Enterprise Institute and is published on Hess鈥� blog in Education Week. He sees the project as 鈥渙ne small way to encourage academics to step into the fray and revisit academic norms.鈥�
CU Boulder School of Education faculty rankings include: Gene V. Glass (No. 22), Kevin G. Welner (No. 82), Lorrie Shepard (No. 103), and Alex Molnar (No. 169). For the full list, .听
鈥淚t is quite wonderful to have so many of our faculty represented on this list, reflecting the ways we value public scholarship as a school as well as the impact our work has on the public debate of current educational issues鈥� said Kathy Schultz, Dean of the School of Education. 鈥淚 hope to see our presence in these debates continue to grow.
鈥淚t is notable that this year, Rick Hess added a new category called syllabus, which tracked the number of times scholars鈥� work appeared on course syllabi.鈥�
In addition to the syllabus category, Hess and his colleagues complied rankings using eight other metrics, including Google scholar score; book points; highest Amazon ranking; education press mentions; web mentions; newspaper mentions; congressional record mentions; and twitter Klout score.
Shepard, dean emerita and distinguished professor of research and evaluation methodology, said education scholars aim to follow Hess鈥� lead and work together to create what are known as 鈥渁ltmetric鈥� approaches to account for public scholarship.
鈥淏y bringing together measures of scholarly impact and broader impact on public dialogue, Hess has helped to advance a very important discussion,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e must recognize that the particular criteria used in these rankings are quite limited in capturing scholars鈥� influence, but as a community of scholars we must develop robust measures to capture authentic public engagement.鈥�
Hess aims to do more to recognize and value those scholars who engage in public discourse.
鈥淎s I see it, the extraordinary policy scholar excels in five areas: disciplinary scholarship, policy analysis and popular writing, convening and shepherding collaborations, providing incisive media commentary, and speaking in the public square,鈥� Hess explained. 鈥淚'm not sure I've got everything exactly right, but I think such efforts convey real information and help to spark useful discussion.鈥�